As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Each of the hardware components within an information handling system may include a printed circuit board (PCB). Some conventional PCBs used within information handling systems can include impedance coupons to check the fabrication quality of PCBs. For high performance PCBs, it is desirable for the electrical impedance of the PCB to be controlled such that all data buses function within a desired design specification. To monitor impedance, some conventional PCBs provide impedance coupons having specific lengths, e.g. four (4) inches, six (6) inches, etc., and trace widths resulting in expected measurable impedances. As a quality control inspection tool, the impedance coupons are tested using a Time Domain Reflectometer (TDR) to determine the impedance of the PCB.
Testing impedance coupons is sufficient for predicting performance of some end systems. However, conventional impedance coupons and testing methods fail to monitor application specific performance parameters as quality control metrics for testing PCBs for specific end use systems such as high performance servers, storage devices, etc. Additionally, conventional test methods fail to provide quality control monitors and test methodologies that may be easily implemented within HVM environments.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.